


The story unfolds

by Yes_itisnessa



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Blow Jobs, College AU, Homophobic Language, M/M, Massages, Mentions of bipolar, Nightmares, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Panic Attacks, Sexual Content, kina ooc, more tags as i go on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-03-16 13:37:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3490253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yes_itisnessa/pseuds/Yes_itisnessa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU in which Ian and Mickey are boyfriends and so in love, and say 'I love you' in every way possible  except those three words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Did you eat enough today?

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a collection of one-shots based off of [this post.](http://fuckyouandyourstarwars.tumblr.com/post/112727108095/ways-to-tell-someone-love-you) Use it if you must, but be warned I’m not going in order

Mickey and Ian sat side by side, arms pressed against each other, backs up against the headboard of Ian’s tiny twin size dorm room bed. They sat in their boxers and random t-shirts they had found on the floor, both most likely Ian’s, with the sheets kick down to the very edge of the bed. Their faces were illuminated in the dark room from their laptop screens, the tapping of the keys making the only sound in the room. They hadn’t been outside, or in the light for that matter, for around five hours, locked inside doing their homework, and doing each other. They had both had finally settled in to get some serious work done, as the sun went down and they were too content sitting next to each other in the almost silence to get up and turn on any lights. More minutes had passed, and Ian slide his foot up and over Mickey's right leg just for more contact. The warmness of Ian’s leg sent shivers up Mickey’s leg because of the cool October air and the lack of layers. Ian had felt the shivers, and Mickey had known Ian felt them so he didn't even glance over at the redhead, he just smirked knowing the ecstatic look on his face and continued writing his paper, until he heard Ian's stomach growl. 

"Fuck man, did you eat enough today?" Mickey said in a teasing voice, stopping his typing and turning his head towards Ian's face. He looked even paler with the white background of a document on his computer screen lighting up his face. 

"Um, yeah. Sure." Ian answered with hesitation and uncertainty. He didn't even look up at the other man as he kept tapping at the keyboard frantically. Mickey furrowed his eyebrows at Ian's tone in his voice. 

"When's the last time you ate?" Mickey asked now voice now filled with more concern than before. Ian heard the sense of urgency in his voice and stopped typing to look at him, his face inches away from his own. 

"I don't know, like this morning when I took my pills? Why are you so concerned?" Ian asked in a slightly annoyed voice. He hated it when people thought he couldn’t take care of himself, and he especially didn’t need that from his boyfriend of nearly a year. 

Mickey closed his laptop before continuing, "you can't go to sleep hungry, Ian. It's not healthy"

"Well, if you haven't noticed I've been a bit busy today. Plus I'm broke." Ian said tilting his head to the side against the headboard, closing his laptop, and hoping to get around the conversation. He was starting to feel the effects of fucking all afternoon, and being up for nearly 20 hours. He’d rather be doing anything right now, other than talking about his health. 

"Ian-"

"Mickey," Ian said in a mocking voice cutting him off, "c'mon on, I'm tired. Can't we just go to sleep?" Ian asked pleadingly. Mickey just grumbled something Ian couldn't make out, rolling off the bed and walking over to his bag. 

"Mick, what-" before he could finish Mickey chucked a mini bag of Lay's potato chips and a granola bar at his legs. 

"Eat it. Then we can go to sleep." Mickey said with a stern look as he walked up, standing next to the bed while Ian opened the granola bar and took a bite. 

"You don't have to stand there like a creeper watching me eat." Ian said around the bar and Mickey just threw himself back on the bed, laying on his stomach, head right next to Ian's hip. Ian took a couple seconds before he spoke up again. "You know you don't have give up your food for me. I don't want you to go broke too." 

"Shut up.” Mickey responded quickly, “I stole it from the cafeteria this morning. If I didn't know how to cheat my way out of buying shit, I would have been broke a long time ago." He said looking up at Ian's bright smiling face. Ian finished off the granola bar, throwing the wrapper on the ground before grabbing the bag of chips and rolling over so he was laying on his stomach along Mickey’s side, propping himself up on his elbows. From his shoulder all the way down to his feet he was touching Mickey. 

"At least share the chips with me." Ian said with the puppy dog eyes he knew Mickey couldn't resist. The dark haired man grumbled before taking the yellow bag, mimicking Ian's position and opening them up, shoving one into his mouth. Ian stretched his neck over to push his lips onto Mickey's cheek, holding them there and feeling the movements of his jaw moving up and down. He heard Mickey swallow before shifting his head, with Ian’s lips dragging along the side of his face until the two boys lips met. They slowly massaged their lips together, not going any further for a few minutes, until Ian pushed forward deepening the kiss and forcing Mickey to roll over onto his back. 

Without detaching the kiss Ian used his arms to hoist himself on top of Mickey, and laid down onto him, now using his hands to frame Mickey’s face while his ran down Ian’s sides until they stopped at his hips. Ian could taste the salt and grease from the chip inside Mickey’s mouth and on his tongue, making him hungrier than he would have liked to admit. After a few more minutes of making out, just as it was starting to get heated, his stomach growled for a second time and Mickey pulled his lips away with Ian chasing after his lips. 

“Ian,” Mickey said with sympathy in his voice, and Ian dropped his head down to burrow it into Mickey’s shoulder. “Eat the goddamn chips and I’ll take you out tomorrow morning. Okay? You can’t turn down your boyfriend paying for some fucking pancakes.” He said grabbing the bag to the left of his head and shoving them into Ian’s hand. Mickey pushed himself up causing Ian to fall off of him, their positions from before now reversed. 

“What if I wanted waffles?” Ian asked sarcastically moving his head onto Mickey’s lap, placing the bag of chips on his own chest as Mickey’s hand automatically running his finger through Ian’s hair.

“Please, you wouldn’t turn down a good stack of pancakes for a million bucks.” He said pulling on a few loose strands of the fire colored hair, mesmerized by the way the man’s jaw and cheekbones moved with every chew. 

“Stop staring at me, perv,” Ian said after a few moments of his chewing filling the silence of the room before closing his eyes and reaching into the bag, grabbing a chip to hand up to Mickey, who took it gratefully with his free hand and chuckling at the redhead’s accusation. But he didn’t stop staring.


	2. Is there anything I can do to help?

Mickey felt like if he stood on his feet for another five minutes he would collapse onto the ground and never wake up. He had stayed up all the previous night spending hours on end trying to figure out how in the hell to do the equations his math professor had given him, and was heading to his last class of the night before he would have to stay up all night finishing the problems and completing an English paper. Mickey was a math major so his english wasn’t on the top of his priority list, but he had had a week to complete it and it was his own fault for leaving it till the last minute. He’d been so caught up in his and Ian’s own problems and his other homework that he had forgotten about the paper.

He walked into the lecture hall, immediately spotting Ian’s red hair and headed over to the unoccupied seat next to him. This was one of the few classes they had together and had actually had the same professor the previous year when they first met officially and started dating soon after. They had grown up in the same neighborhood and knew of each other, but they never really knew each other until college. They had assigned seats and ended up sitting next to each other, and when Ian missed a week of class (which he later explained was because of his bipolar disorder) Mickey agreed to help him catch up. Ian caught on quickly, but they both liked hanging out together, so they continued their 'study session' in Ian's dorm room until the sexual tension was too much to handle and Mickey pushed Ian onto the bed and proceeded to make out with him. Three days later they were dating.

Ian had always been a smarter student than Mickey, so he was in a lot of higher classes, which is why a Freshman and Junior had the same class, and now the Sophomore and Senior had two classes together. Ian had been so caught up in his writing that he hadn't notice Mickey walk in the classroom until he collapsed into the seat, basically falling onto Ian.

"Dude, are you okay?" Ian said laughing letting Mickey lean onto him for a second before pushing him off so that his head could fall into his arms folded on the table.

"No, I'm not doing okay dude." Mickey said pushing his head to rest on his fist, supported by his elbow. His head rested so heavily on his hand, that if Ian had pushed his elbow over a fraction his whole body would topple over. "I haven't had any coffee all day, I was up all night doing those fucking problems, which I didn’t even finish, and I have a whole goddamn fucking English paper to write tonight.” He paused to get control of his anger, but jumped back into his own conversation, “and I’m not going to be able to focus on this fucking lecture cus I’m so fucking tired.” His face fell back to the tired look from before it was all scrunched up and angry, so Ian knew he was done talking.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked with sympathy in his voice. He knew Mickey hated it, but he had been in the same situation a few months back, and Mickey had helped him more than he thought one person could help.

“Nah, man. This is all on me.” He said slowly, closing his eyes hoping to get a few minutes rest before the professor began his lecture.

“Why don’t I write your paper for you? I’m shit and math and probably couldn’t figure out those problems for money, but I have some experience in English.” Ian said with a smirk and his eyebrows jumping up and down. Ian was an English major, and probably the best in his class at the moment. He found every possible moment to brag to Mickey about it.

“Yeah, yeah Gallagher, but I’m pretty sure my professor would be able to tell my usual shit writing to your superior skills.” He said in a sarcastic tone. He opened his eyes just to roll them at the redhead.

“Maybe I’ll tone down it down just for y-”

“Gallagher! Milkovich!” Their professor yelled from the front of the room. Both men turned sharply towards the voice, pulling them out of their own world, realizing the class had started. “If you don’t mind I’m assuming we are all here to learn. Not listen to you two banter. Now as I was saying..” He continued on and Ian and Mickey turned their heads towards each other once more. Ian simply raised his eyebrows at Mickey, who just shook his head and settled back into his seat, while Ian started on taking notes for the both of them

\--

“Mickey, you’re barely standing, just let me.” “No. Ian. I’m not fucking invalid. I can do things on my own.” They argued as the walked into Ian’s dorm room. Ian slammed the door frustrated by how stubborn Mickey was being, causing his roommate, Ryan, to nearly have a heart attack.

“DUDE! Calm the fuck down, Jesus.” Ryan remarked as he sat right next to the door, drinking Jack Daniel’s, from the bottle.

“Dude, it’s a Wednesday night. Why are you drinking whiskey from the bottle?” Ian asked standing in the doorway as Mickey grumbled a hey toward the drunk brunette on the ground before collapsing onto Ian’s bed.

“Rough day.” He simply said before taking yet another sip. “And by the looks of it your boy toy did too.” He added, nodding over to the direction of Ian’s bed where Mickey raised his hand to flip him off, not even picking up his head from the pillow. Ryan had always thought that Ian and Mickey relationship wouldn’t have worked out from his first meeting Mickey, but over the last year he saw their relationship progress almost as much as themselves had. He had been Ian’s first and now closest friend when he came to the campus. Ian had the luck of having a rude but understanding roommate and they both helped each other a lot through the first year. Mickey hadn’t had such luck, he was stuck with a homophobic asshole as his roommate, so he spent a majority of his time at Ian and Ryan’s dorm.

“You want some man?” Ryan yelled louder than necessary over to Mickey, who pushed himself up at the slowest possible rate.

“Fuck, yeah man,” he said getting up just as slowly.

“Noo,” Ian dragged out walking over and pushing Mickey back down to sit onto the bed once again. “You’re doing your fucking math problems while I do your English paper, and then you’re going to sleep.”

“Jesus, when did you become such a wife? Let the man drink if he wants to drink.” Ryan said from the corner, well past the stage where he pretended to be nice to about anything he was slightly annoyed with. The three of them had gotten drunk enough that they practically knew their stages of drunkenness by heart. Ryan had to have been drinking for an hour or so already.

Ian just shot him a death glare over his shoulder before pushing a grumbling Mickey up against the headboard, where his head fell back, and shoved his bag full of papers into his lap.

“I can do the English paper myself,” Mickey said as Ian circled the bed, grabbing his laptop, and settling next to Mickey.

“I know you can, but just let me do this for you.” He said tilting his head to stare into Mickey’s stubborn eyes. It took a couple seconds of intense staring before Mickey folded with a sigh and started on his problems. Ian smiled for a second before opening the laptop and beginning the paper.

An hour later Ryan had finally passed out on his own bed, after making several attempts to climb in with Ian and Mickey, and Mickey had finished all of his math and was now resting his head on Ian’s shoulder as he watched him type the paper.

“Mick, why don’t you just go to sleep. You look exhausted.”

“Gotta make sure-” he started, but before he could finish he let out a huge yawn, “you don’t fuck up my paper.” He finished along with a sigh ending his sentence. Ian looked out of the corner of his eye over to the dark haired man to see Mickey finally closing his eyes, his head going slack against Ian. Ian waited a second before turning his head to kiss the top of Mickey's head, and whispering “I won’t” into his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm not sure when I'm going to update, or if I'm really going to have a pattern. The next chapter should be up in a week or so but you can...  
> Check me out on [ tumblr ](http://fuckyouandyourstarwars.tumblr.com/) and ask me when I'm updating. I'll give YA the scoop(;  
> 


	3. Call me, please

_“You’ve reached the voicemail of Ian Gallagher, please leave a message-”_

Mickey hung up the unanswered call angry and annoyed. That had been the sixteenth time that morning he tried to get a hold of Ian, and no answer. He had woken up early that day ready to meet Ian for coffee like they usually did on Monday morning’s when they had their first class of the week together, but Mickey had stood around waiting for fifteen minutes and when Ian hadn’t shown up he decided to just leave and meet him in class. When he showed up ten minutes later, Ian wasn’t there either. Usually if Ian wasn’t feeling well he would have at least texted Mickey, but this silence was scaring him. Every time he called he debated leaving a voicemail for Ian, but didn’t want to leave a bunch of voicemails sounding too desperate and worried, But in all honesty he was extremely desperate and worried.

He was in his class and seated by the time he made his twentieth call and decided, fuck it, he was leaving a voicemail.

“Hey, shithead. It’s Mickey. Just you know, wondering why you skipped coffee this morning; and class. Oh and why not add why you’ve been ignoring me all morning? Are you fucking pissed off at me for some reason I got no clue about? Cus I can't stand-" Mickey cut himself off abruptly before he could continue. He was starting to release anger he didn’t even realize he had built up. He took a deep breath before getting back to his original motive. “Alright, this is about the twentieth time I’ve called without you picking up and I’m starting to get fucking homicidal. Just- Call me. Please.” He added before hanging up and slamming the phone on the table while his professor walked in. He kept the phone close just in case Ian decided to text or call him back.

\--

He wouldn't admit it on his death bed, but the second after the clock had turned to 9:30 Mickey had bolted out of the classroom and started sprinting across the campus. He was beyond pissed and in between worried and extremely angry that Ian hadn't even texted him back. He switched his mood several times during the sprint to Ian's dorm room, making accusations of why he should be pisssed off at the man, or why he should be worried, finding it very difficult to be on one side or the other.

Ultimately he ended up at Ian's dorm with the mindset of angry and took two seconds to catch his breath before he viciously slammed open the door.

"Ian Gallagher," he started off in a hard voice, so ready to tear Ian apart but as he entered the room he immediately felt regret at ever thinking Ian was ignoring him on purpose.

Ian was laying hunched into himself facing the door, and had flinched so hard when Mickey slammed open the door that he ended up leaning over the side of the mattress and dry heaving into the bucket next to his bed. Mickey's face automatically filled with sympathy and he moved over to the man covered in a white sweat-stained sheet. Ian coughed a few times before groaning and resting his forehead onto the edge of the bed. Mickey glance at Ian's face, coated with a layer of sweat, but more importantly it was as pale as Mickey had ever seen it before. His skin looked as if he had just walked out of his first midnight horror movie premiere.

"Hey, shit, I'm sorry about the whole being loud thing," Mickey whispered as he crouched down next to the small bed and rested his hand on the back of Ian's head, on top of his dampened hair. He rubbed his thumb up and and down Ian's hairline seeing the shivers it sent through his body. "How're you feeling?" Mickey asked when Ian had gathered up enough strength to turn his head towards his boyfriend, although it wasn't much of a turn. He let his head fall to the side, once Mickey had removed his hand. He opened his eyes slowly taking a couple seconds before speaking.

"Shitty," he said in a rough voice. "Sorry I didn't...I heard the phone-"

"Don't worry about that. Okay? I was just worried and my head went to all the wrong places." Mickey's said cutting him off rather quickly. "You need anything?"

"Some water." Ian's hoarse voice let out, and Mickey got up, and wrapped his hands lightly around the back of his fire red hair lifting his head onto the pillow. Ian let out a sigh once his head hit the fluff of the pillow instead of the hard mattress and Mickey grabbed the bucket, with a kiss to Ian's sweaty temple. He went to closest bathroom and emptied out the bucket, gagging a little bit, and returned to the dorm room. He placed the bucket back down next to the bed where Ian’s hand hung over the side. Mickey grabbed a water bottle out of his bag and placed it on small table in between the two twin dorm beds and walked over to the opposite side.

“Sit up.” Mickey commanded, “I got you your water,” he pleaded, nudging Ian’s shoulder and sitting down next to him. He looked at the man, whose arms looked so white he could have been dead for all Mickey knew. After a few minutes of no response from Ian, he grabbed him by the shoulder, so that he lay on his back, making sure he was still breathing. He pulled face from the new exposure to light, and just whined, attempting but failing to roll back over. Mickey felt so much guilt that he had be angry and thinking Ian was ignoring him. The kid could barely move. “come ‘re” Mickey mumbled, sliding down to lay on his own back and bring Ian into his side. He took in a sharp breath as his head came down to rest on Mickey’s chest, but he still threw an arm up on Mickey so his hand was placed in the middle of his chest and his fingertips rested just on top of his collarbone.

"You're not contagious right?"

"I hope not, for your sake." Ian said laughing a little before it turned into a fit of coughing. Mickey pushed Ian up a bit, as he tried not to cough into Mickey's face and chest. Once he had finished he slumped back into Mickey and he lowered them back to their previous position.

“You okay?” Mickey asked lightly settling his arm around Ian’s back and having his fingers run up and down Ian’s bicep. He shrugged slightly, and Mickey continued running his fingertips up and down until Ian shook with a chill and attempted to bury himself deeper under Mickey’s arm. Mickey felt Ian’s face scrunch up as he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. “hey, tell me.”

  
“Jus’ my head. Fuckin' hurts.” Ian says quietly. Mickey brought his hand up to the side of Ian’s head, and lightly pushed into Ian’s temple with his fingers. He massaged his head for a little bit and after a while, he felt Ian slowly melt into him. He drifted off into the unconscious after a couple of minutes as Mickey continued the movements, making his shitty day a little more bearable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're liking it so far!! Please please please let me know what you guys thinks it helps in ways you wouldn't imagine. I should be trying to update another chapter by the end of this weekend so look forward!(:


	4. Don't forget to buckle up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder, Ian and Mickey did not know each other previously to going to college. And the chapters most likely will not be in chronological order. 
> 
> But enjoy!

“Dude, watch where your fucking going. We’re not even going to make it back to your house before it gets worse if you keep this shit up.”

“Shut the fuck up, like you’d be driving any better.” Ian bit back at Mickey as he drove through the beginnings of a winter blizzard. He had no venom in his voice but he was beginning to get annoyed at Mickey’s constant bickering through the drive back to the Gallagher’s for New Years.

“Yo, fucking buckle the up too. Moron.” Mickey said continuing the criticism of Ian’s driving. Neither Ian nor Mickey were the best drivers, not being able to afford a car when they were younger, they never properly learned to drive. And living in the city meant that they could walk everywhere they needed to. If not, they took the bus or train. “It’s like you want us to die,” he mumbled the last bit enough that Ian knew he spoke, but didn’t hear the words.

“Jesus, Mickey. It’s not like there’s gonna be tons of cops pulling me over for not wearing a seat belt.”

“Exactly, they can’t see you, you can’t see the fucking road. You’re gonna get yourself killed. Put. It. On.” Mickey said more forcefully than the last few complaints and demands he had towards Ian and his driving. Ian was the better driver of the two, but not by much.

“Fine, Christ, hold the wheel,” Ian said without thinking and took both his hands to turn around and reach for the seat belt.

“What- FUCK” Mickey yelled and reached over Ian to grab the wheel with one hand. He could barely see out the window and his heart sped up to a hundred beats a minute. He was lucky there weren’t many people crazy enough to be out on the roads after the blizzard warning earlier that morning. But Ian being the family nut he was, wouldn’t back down on his promise to come to the Gallagher’s annual New Year’s Eve party. So here they were driving, with Ian being a complete idiot. Once Ian had his belt buckled he put both his hands back on the wheel and Mickey yanked his own hand back. “The fuck is wrong with you?” He yelled at him angry and a little bit terrified at the moment.

“What? You wanted me to put the seat belt on.”

“Yeah, but not take both your fucking hands of the wheel. Your stupidity could have gotten us dead on the side of the road.”

“Fuck, why’re you being so weird about this shit? You never follow the rules,” Ian asked quite shocked. Mickey was almost never cautious about anything, except something having to do with Ian’s bipolar disorder. His catch phrase was ‘fuck it’. But as Ian looked over at Mickey he saw his avoid his gaze obvious to him, but Mickey thought he was being subtle.

“Just wanna make it back to your place it one piece.” He said with a lot less heat, and stared at his hand where he rubbing his fingers over his knuckle tattoos. Then Ian knew something was up. Mickey only did that thing with his hands when he was uncomfortable or lying. Mickey had a bunch of different little quirks he had when he was trying to get away with something and he never thought anyone could tell. Most of the time he was able to pull this act off flawlessly.

But Ian could see right through him.

“Mickey,” Ian said slowly, dragging the name out hoping he’ll be able to drag some truth out of Mickey.

“Ian,” he said in the exact manner, mocking the redhead.

“Don’t do this.”

“Do what?” Mickey knew exactly what he was doing, and would always do this. Whenever Ian caught him in something he didn’t want to bring up he would do everything to blatantly avoid the subject.

“That, thing you do when you don't wanna talk about something," Ian spluttered out. He glanced over at Mickey and saw him try to look like he had no clue of what Ian was talking about, "and don't try to deny it shithead. Talk to me."

“It’s nothing dick, watch the road.” He grumbled slumping down so his head reached just the top of the car seat, continuing to stare straight ahead. He crossed his arms over his chest with his shoulders tensing and staying that way through the new strained silence. Although Mickey had officially shut out the idea of talking, Ian knew there was something Mickey wasn’t telling him. The way he refused to even glance anyway but straight forward led Ian to believe that it was a more serious topic that Mickey wasn’t comfortable with.

“Quit staring at me,” Mickey said suddenly shocking Ian out of his own mind

“Mick,”

“I said I don’t wanna talk about it so fucking drop it.”

“But there is something.”

“The fuck did I just say.”

“You know you can talk to me about it”

“Yeah, no sorry I’m not Mr. touchy feely like you”

“The fucks that supposed to mean?” They were both screaming at each other for completely unnecessary reasons, but neither of them were backing down. With every sentence their voices got increasing louder and added a little more anger too each one.

“Nothing. Wouldn’t want to distract you from the fucking awful driving you’re doing.”

“What the fuck is up with you and my driving. It’s not like you're any better.”

“Yeah well at least I’m not a complete fucking idiot and will have us continuing my fucking family’s tradition,” and with that one sentence Mickey fell silent again, all the past unneeded anger disappearing from his face settling into his defensive position once again.

“Mick”

“Just leave it, Ian.” He said shaking his head obviously trying to hold back tears. His voice had wavered but he made a show of keeping his eyes pointed on the road ahead. Ian knew that this conversation was hitting a nerve with Mickey so he decided to drop it. At least for now and they settled back into the silence, except a sort of sorrow hung to the air now instead of the tense feeling of before.

Ian sighed deeply and went back to driving, but making sure to keep his eyes forward and on the snow covered road. Every couple minutes he would glance at Mickey who slowly had lowered his head onto the glass of the window, refusing to look Ian’s way, watching the snowflakes fall.

“You know, my mom and brother got into a car accident once when I was, like, 16.” Ian said after the silence had stretched on long enough, and he couldn’t stand Mickey looking so sad. “She was manic at the time and let Carl, who was 11, drive and then went about ten feet before he crashed them straight into a telephone pole. They didn’t have much damage to themselves, a few cuts and bruises, but Carl hasn’t driven since. The car’s hood was completely smashed in, and all of our squirrel fund-”

“What the hell is a squirrel fund?” Mickey asked speaking his first words in over a half hour.

“It’s the extra money we get over the summer to last us in the winter, but anyway all the money we had saved was used to buy that car so were were basically broke all winter, and we couldn’t even use the car or get repairs.”

“Why the fuck are you telling me this?” Mickey asked sounding on the brink of being really annoyed and pissed off

“I don’t know. Just thought it’d make you feel better that you weren’t the only one with family traditions you don’t want to repeat,” and any trace of Mickey’s anger disappeared from his face and returned to sadness and shock. He looked at Ian with wide eyes for a couple seconds before bowing his head and picking at his fingernails.

“My, uh. My mom when I was six.” Mickey started still not looking up. Ian desperately wanted to look at him, but he knew if he was staring him down he would never talk, so he kept his eyes on the road. “Iggy was in the car with her, they were coming back from like a soccer game or some shit and I uh don’t really remember all the details but mom had been getting high all afternoon and wasn’t in the right mind to be driving and the roads got slippery when it started raining all the sudden. Ig walked away with a broken leg and sprained wrist, but she didn’t make it. Internal bleeding and head trauma or something like that.”

Ian looked over to Mickey and saw his cheeks stained with tears, but hadn’t made any indication that he had been crying while he was talking. Ian didn’t want to say anything that would hurt or upset Mickey further because he knew how hard it was for Mickey to come clean with stuff from his past, but he needed Mickey look up at him.

“Mick,” he said softly and when Mickey looked him in the eyes he nodded his head and shrugged one shoulder. Mickey immediately got the message and shoved over in his seat a little to rest his head on Ian’s shoulder, sniffling a little. Ian awkwardly raised his arm around him to wipe away his tears and then settled his arm across his back, slowly stroking his side with his thumb as they kept driving into the blizzard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the huge delay, but
> 
> Hopefully this cheers some of you up from the finale and all the break up fics, although it's not that happy of a chapter. I'm hoping to have a way happier one up by tomorrow so keep a look out!(;


	5. I've got your back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this chapter is a lot more fluffier for you guys(;

“Jesus Christ I’m surrounded by you fucking fags,” Mickey’s roommate, Justin, groaned as he pushed past Ian to get out of the room opening the door to Mickey’s dorm. While Ian had gotten lucky with a chill roommate like Ryan, who was fine with Mickey always hanging around the their dorm, the other of the pair hadn’t been so lucky. Justin was one of the most homophobic aggressively heterosexual guys Mickey had ever met.

He had been honest to god terrified of Mickey when they first moved into the dorms together. Mickey had scared him shitless the first day when he laid down ground rules between them. Between his harsh words and knuckle tattoos, the boy had spent a majority of their first year avoiding his dorm mate. Eventually Mickey found the guy smoking some weed and the two had gotten high together and had bonded into a non bother, non hating relationship. They weren’t the best of roommates but they had tolerated each other. That was until last year when he walked in on Ian and Mickey making out in his dorm and nearly got kicked out of the school because of the fight he had started with Mickey, ending with the two of them in the infirmary with a couple broken ribs, noses, and both of them leaving scars on each other that are still there a year later.

They had tried to get new roommates when he found out Mickey was gay, but the dorm advisors had been taking their sweet time and never got around to switching their rooms. They were stuck with each other and Justin gave Mickey hell everyday because of it. That’s why Ian hardly goes over to Mickey’s dorm and why Mickey spends a majority of his time not in class at Ian’s.

“You sure you don’t want to just come over to my dorm?” Ian asked approaching the bed where Mickey sat with papers scattered all over.

“Nah man, it’d be a pain in the ass to pack up all my shit, plus the douche said he’d be gone for the night. Going to some frat party.”

“The douche.” Ian said and Mickey hummed in agreement. Ian gathered some of Mickey’s papers and sat up against the headboard of the bed with his legs out while Mickey sat cross legged and hunched over in the middle. They sat in a comfortable silence while Mickey worked on his homework with Ian randomly reading some of Mickey’s notes. He couldn’t help but somehow be fascinated by Mickey’s penmanship. Looking at Mickey you would expect doctor level of sloppy handwriting, but Mickey’s notes were neater than his. He would read hours of notes about the theories of functions by Mickey just to see the way his letters fit together perfectly but somehow remained separate.

Eventually Ian puts his notes back down on the bed and starts tracing random shapes on the cotton shirt covering his boyfriend’s back. He feels the tenseness of stress in the muscles under his fingertips and begins to knead his thumbs into the man's back, around his shoulder blades and down his spine. Ian gets up onto his knees so he can get better leverage, but Mickey turned his head to look at Ian before he went further. Ian dove his head down to capture Mickey's bottom lip into his mouth, while the older man latched onto his top lip. Ian leaned his weight onto Mickey's back to deepen the kiss and push his mouth more to Mickey's, Ian quickly becoming the dominant in the kiss. Although Mickey seemed urgent to continue, as quickly as it started Ian pulled back but remained close enough so that they were still breathing into each other's mouths resting their foreheads on the others.

"Whacha doing?" Mickey asked quietly, like a kept secret, into Ian's mouth making Ian's lips turn up from the warmth of Mickey's breath. Ian just hummed and reached forward to pull at the hem of Mickey's shirt until he got the hint and let Ian pull the shirt up and over his head, but when he tried to pull on Ian's he stopped him.

"Lay on your stomach," the redhead commanded. Mickey just smirked at him before straining his neck up to peck Ian's lips and settled down resting his chin on his folded arms. Ian straddled his lower back, papers crunching under his left knee as he settled his leg down, sitting his ass on Mickey's own.

"Watch my papers," Mickey tried to reach back and take the paper out from under Ian's knee, but he pushed the black haired man's arm back to the front of his face leaning over his back with the movement. His face was on top Mickey's head and he inhaled smelling the smell of stress and shampoo through the black hair before kissing the same spot and continuing kissing the man from the back of his skull, his neck, and down his spine. He trailed his lips back up Mickey's spine and up his shoulder so his mouth was right next to his ear.

"Why are you so stressed out?" Ian asked softly kissing the lobe of Mickey's ear and pushing his thumb into his opposite shoulder and rubbing circles there. Ian felt Mickey's back raise up and then down as he exhaled a moan and some of his anxiety as he turned his head to face Ian's who now inches away.

"College," Mickey said on the exhale as Ian pushed his fingers deeper into his muscles.

"Yeah, but that happens everyday. You're usually not this quiet." Ian says pushing into a new muscle as the older man tries to hold in the appreciation of a heavy exhale because of the relief Ian’s hands were to his tense muscles. "Or tense."

"Justin's been more dickish than usual." Mickey answers letting his eyes fall shut and himself open up more as Ian pushes his fingers down and releases all of Mickey's problem from the last week. Ian lifts his head from Mickey's shoulder and starts pushing into the bottom parts of his back. With every new spot it made Mickey moan almost as if he was being fucked, and Ian loved that he could make Mickey feel this pleasure just from his hands. He leans forward on his hands with thumbs pressed into his spine and he cracks up the middle one knob at a time until he reaches the top again and moves his head to the other side of Mickey's head and continues digging into his opposite shoulder. He was still facing toward the side Ian had just been, so he took his free hand to palm Mickey's head and spread his fingers around his scalp and the raven just hummed in enjoyment.

"How was Justin being more of a dick than he normally is?" With Ian right behind his head Mickey turns his head to look at Ian, and they're once again inches away from each other's face.

"He's just been making more of a show that he's part of a fucking frat. Bringing a bunch a guys over then making sure they _know_ I'm gay, like me being there puts them in danger or some shit. And he's been bringing a bunch more girls back here then kicking me out when I'm trying to do work."

"Why didn't you come to my dorm?" Ian asked in a caring but a little hurt voice continuing to go harshly into a muscle before moving his thumb in a soothing circle.

"Had to actually do shit. Knew I couldn't with you around." Mickey mumbled closing his eyes once again.

"Aw, babe." Ian mocked

"Shut up." Mickey said but opened his eyes again and smiled once he saw Ian's mirror-breaking grin.

"You got anymore work to do?" Ian asked now reaching the point of trailing his palm up and down Mickey's side. Mickey made a noise while he thought about it and Ian lifted himself up off of Mickey and flopped on his side with his chest and legs trailing down Mickey's left side hearing the crunch of papers underneath him. He propped his head up on his elbow, and took his index finger to trail around Mickey's skin. He was watching his finger move when Mickey answered.

"I think you're laying on it." Mickey said moving to rest his head against Ian's bicep as he twisted his neck, attempting to watch Ian's finger move over him, but Ian was now watching Mickey as his eyes slowly drifted shut. The two of them sat in the blissful silence slowly drifting off.

\--

"THATS FUCKING SICK," A voice cut into the room and right through the two boy's sleep. They were so struck by the sudden burst of noise, Ian nearly fell off the bed if Mickey hadn't grabbed his waist. He flailed for a second and regained himself but not before they both erupted in laughter, forgetting about the noise that woke them up in the first place.

"Why the hell do I have to come back to my dorm to a fucking queer festival. I feel fucking violated. Go do whatever sick shit you do somewhere else." Justin with his neon green snap back and a girl on his arm yelled angrily from the doorway.

"Yo, we were here first asshole. Go fuck your girlfriend somewhere else." Mickey said more anxious than annoyed. Ian had a feeling that Justin reminded Mickey a little of Terry by the way his muscles tensed with his rebuttal towards the boy.

"I thought we had a fucking deal. I don't beat the living shit out of you and you move your fucking Aids den somewhere else."

"Like you could even lay a punch on Mickey." Ian spoke up.

"You wanna fucking see me faggot?" Justin yelled letting the silent girl on his arm go, only to shove her onto the bed.

"What, you think using slurs makes you better than me?" Ian said standing up off the bed to show his obvious advantage over the scrawny kid. He may have been able to lay a few on Mickey, but he had cheated in the fight, shoving a pen in Mickey’s hand to start. Plus Justin was almost a full head taller than Mickey. "Why don't you just walk away before I really show you what fucking you up means."

"The fuck should I do that for?" He asked, and with that Ian punched him in the face. He used so much force it knocked him on the ground with a newly bloody nose. Ian walks over to when he had collapsed almost outside in the hallway and crouched down to grab his hair and pull him up so he was looking him in the eye, but still below him.

"Because you have two outed South Side guys who would have never survived if they didn't know how to fight off the biggest and baddest fag beaters there, against your hundred pound ass." Ian said forcefully before slamming his head back on the ground. "Get the fuck out." He finished off easily with Justin scrambling up to grab his, what looked like, freshman girl off the bed and practically tripped over himself to get out of the dorm room. Ian made his way back up, shutting the door, and coming to lay next to Mickey who was stunned into silence.

"Damn, Gallagher." He said simply before he pushed Ian onto his back and laid on top of his stomach. He took Ian's face in between his hands before he talked again. "You look hot when you're pissed off." And he leaned down to worship Ian's mouth. He poured all his repayments for that day into the kiss, making sure to suck on Ian's lip and tongue just the way he liked it, and tease him just enough to make him crave more. He pulled away after a while of just making out and pushed his fingers through the red fiery hair that that had always made all of Mickey's problems disappear.

"Thank you." He said affectionately before kissing his forehead and resting his own there stroking the side of his face with his thumbs.

**  
**"I always got your back, Mick." Ian continued to run his hands down and up his back knowing that the saying ran deeper than just where Ian's hand touched his own skin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if any of you care but I'm on spring break rn which is the reason for the splurge of fanfiction. 
> 
> I'm working on the next chapter now so it should hopefully be up by tomorrow or the weekend


	6. Do you need me to spend the night?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first attempt at smut so don't mock me too much

The past week Ian had been stressed out about everything and everyone. He was pretty sure something was wrong. He could feel something off, but he was too tied down with school work and his own personal problems that he didn’t have time to go to get help. He just dealt with his problems the way he always had.  Kept them bottled up inside until he spills over.

**Monday-**

Why he thought drinking with Ryan and Mickey the night before was a good idea he would never be able to figure out. He woke up with the light from the open blinds attempting to break into the space between his eyelids. He tried so hard to ignore the light, but it was too overpowering. Slowly he opened his eyes attempting to adjust to the sudden blast of light while he stretched his arms out, only to find one of them trapped by Mickey’s head which rested on his inner bicep. Mickey was curled into Ian so that his hand laid possessively on his chest and a leg thrown over his waist. They were both naked, and Ian could hear Ryan’s loud breathing from across the room. He twisted his body so that he could attempt to look at the alarm clock that sat on the table between the two bed, but instantly regret it.

“SHIT” he screamed nearly falling out of the bed, waking both Mickey and Ryan up. The two men groaned as Ian scrambled out of bed to look for some clothes.

“Dude, cover your junk its too early for that shit.” Ryan said slowly rolling out of bed. He heard Mickey chuckle before finding a pair of boxers and throwing them over to him. He grabbed them and put them on before realizing they were Mickey’s. But that was the least of his problems, half the time they shared boxers anyway. Right now he had to be across campus ready for a review that would make or break his chances at passing this huge english exam he had, in eight minutes.

“I have to get to class. Like right now.” Ian said desperately trying not to puke from his hangover. All he really wanted was coffee, but he in no way had time to go get some. He found a pair of jeans tossed on the ground and pulled them on, searching for a shirt at the same time.

“Yo,” Mickey said and as soon as Ian’s head popped to the sound Mickey's sweatshirt was being thrown at him. He quickly threw it over his head, grabbed his bag, and pecked Mickey on the lips with a mumbled 'later' making his way out the door to begin sprinting through the campus trying to get to class on time.

The rest of the day was complete shit. Because of the major migraine he had, he couldn't focus on anything happening in his classes. So after his last class he just went to take a nap in his dorm and ended passed out until 9, when he was woken up by his phone ringing.

"Hello?" He answered groggily not even glancing at the caller ID, certain that the light would render him blind.  

"The fuck are you, man?" He heard Mickey's rough and angered voice fill up his ear. He had to pull the phone back because of the loud voice.

"My dorm," he answered not fully awake enough to have a conversation, especially with an angry Mickey, for what reason he had no idea. And that made things worse because he would have to usually pull the reason out of-

"You were supposed to show up at the library over and hour ago."

Shit. Ian didn't have to think much of why Mickey was pissed off. He made plans with Mickey to help him study for his own exam in the library.

"Shit, Mick I'm sorry, I just. I completely passed out after class, I had such a bad migraine. I'm so sorry." He pleaded through the phone, sitting up in his bed despite the thumping against his skull. He winced, but Mickey was more important than his head pains.

"Nah, it's fine. The exams not til Thursday anyway." Mickey said with a deflated tone in his voice.

"Mickey are you sure. I feel so bad."

"No, it's fine Gallagher. You got a migraine I get it."

"Come back to my dorm, I'll help you here."

"Nah, man I'm just gonna go back to mine and crash. I've been study for a while anyway."

"No, Mickey please." Ian basically begged. He could feel himself shaking because he didn't want to leave this on a bad note. The day had already been shitty and not having Mickey with him tonight would make it worse.

"You have a migraine. Wouldn't want to bother you with my issues." He said in a sharp tone.

"Mickey. Come here. I'll make it up to you I promise."

"Yeah, well you promised you'd be here."

"You're not seriously blaming me. Just this conversation is making me want to hurl."

"Then fucking hang up." But before he gave Ian a chance the line went dead. From the pain and stress Ian couldn't help but have a few tear spill out of the side of his eyes, before he went to lay his head on his pillow and shut his eyes. It was a small argument, but Ian felt like more had happened that he couldn't comprehend. He couldn't shut his mind off as it wandered to horrible possibilities of them breaking up. The thought made him shake harder and he let out a few more tears.

  
Fifteen minutes later he was as far away from falling asleep a person could be, and was facing away when he heard the door open and shut. He didn't pay much attention, thinking it was Ryan coming in until he felt the bed move and someone get in behind him. They kissed the back of his neck, and mumbled " 'm sorry" into his skin before Ian turned around and buried his face into the man's chest. He felt the strong arms he was so familiar with wrap around him, and a hand come up to massage into his temple. He felt such relief that a few tears leaked from his eyes.

"Hey, it's okay. Shhh. You're fine." He heard Mickey whisper. He could feel himself start tremur once again, and Mickey tightened his grip, letting Ian know he felt them too. Fingers ran through his hair soothingly, eventually calming him enough to let his eyes drift, and begin falling into sleep once again.

**Tuesday-**

Ian woke up alone and began to panic. Had Mickey left in the middle of the night because he was still mad at Ian? But they had their first class of the day together, which meant Ian was going to spend the whole time distracted trying to get Mickey to forgive him.  

He thought of a million ways to make things up to Mickey but before he could make it that far, Mickey walked back in the room with just a towel. Ian was so relieved he jumped out of the bed, grabbing Mickey's face with both his hands and kissed him roughly. Mickey went along until the separated.

"Hey, you feeling alright?" Mickey questioned using the hand not holding up the towel to rub at Ian's forearm.

"Yeah, I'm a lot better than I was last night. Thanks for coming over."

"Aye, it was no big deal alright. But you still gotta live up to your promise." Mickey said suggestively raising his eyebrows before pushing past Ian to grab some clothes.

"What about now?" Ian said grabbing Mickey by the hips and spinning him around to face Ian once again.

"We got class in, like, 20 minutes." He said trying to push away, but Ian held his grip letting Mickey's towel fall to the floor.

"I can make it quick" he said before dropping to his knees to take in Mickey's cock. He bobbed back and forth a few times, hearing a muttered fuck above him before removing his mouth and licking the underside of the now hard shaft. He teased the head with his tongue until Mickey forced his hand through Ian's tangled and screwed up hair to grip hard. Ian took it as encouragement to go further and reopened his mouth letting Mickey's dick slide all the way in. Above him Mickey groaned and hissed out curses causing Ian to suck harder and faster causing Mickey to become undone. A few more bobs of Ian's head and strokes of his tongue and Mickey's came shooting down his throat with a delicious groan of pleasure. Ian stoked his thumbs over Mickey's hip bones before removing his mouth, to lightly peck up Mickey's stomach, chest, neck until he reached his mouth, letting Mickey taste himself.

"Jesus" he muttered as Ian separated himself from Mickey's lips before he slapped his ass.

"Get dressed. We're gonna be late." Ian said causing Mickey to scoff and proceed to pick up random clothes and put them on.

With that he had enough energy to be bouncing off the wall the rest of the day.

**Wednesday-**

Ian had spent the night alone because of the massive amounts of homework the two of them had to get done, but he was planning to help Mickey actually study for his big test tonight at the library, that he was not going to miss this time. The day went like any other, slow but manageable. Managing not to get huge amounts of homework, but all the same his last class of the day was the period he was taking his big English exam and was shaking like a leaf from nerves. Normally he wouldn't let the nerves of a test affect him this much, but this test was to count for 50% of this semester's grade, and his grade was already not what he was achieving for this year.

He went into class confident, but he felt like his mind wiped completely when the test was placed in front of him. He had two hours for a multiple choice and short answer section as well as two in class essays. He was sweating and on the verge of having a panic attack, before he willed himself to calm down and just take the test. He tried to pretend that this test didn't matter, and not build it up as if he failing the test meant he wouldn't pass the class. But the thoughts were still in the back of his head throughout the writing.

He finished right as the class ended. Taking a couple seconds more to finish up his closing sentence. He had tried to get himself to calm down, but on the walk to the library nothing helped him. He walked in spotting Mickey almost immediately and sped walked over to the table plopping down into a seat harshly, causing Mickey to jump up from what he was reading.

"Hey how'd-" but before he could finish Ian pushed his lips onto Mickey's trying to connect to something solid. He couldn't seem to calm himself down even though the test was over with. Mickey pulled away almost as soon as the kiss started. "Ian, Jesus Christ, you're shaking so much."

"I know." Ian said with a quivering voice. He hadn't spoken in over two hours and it was coming out worse than he had imagined. "I-I-I can't calm down." Mickey immediately grabbed both of Ian's hands under the table and squeezed them hoping to give him something, but nothing seemed to be working as his breaths grew shorter and harsher.

"Okay we're leaving." Mickey said gathering his books and papers up quickly and grabbed Ian's hand to lead him out of the library. Once then were outside Mickey stopped rushing and slowed their walking pace, still squeezing Ian's hand. "Tell me what's going on." He said simply hoping to get Ian's mind off panicking and distract him for a little bit.

"Just this test that I just took is like a majority of my grade for the semester, and I couldn't just not get that out of my mind. If I fuck up that I fuck up my whole grade, and I just. I don't know over been really stressed out and I can't. I don't know. I think my meds are acting weird." Ian said all jumbled together. He felt like he was talking a hundred words per minute. Mickey just squeezed his hand tighter, despite Ian feeling the sweat gather in his palm.

"We'll get it figured out. Okay? Just breath for a little bit. Okay?" Mickey said trying to get Ian to look him in the eye. He did for a second before pulling his eyes away a nodding. He focused on breathing in and out, the way his therapist taught him and clung to Mickey's hand like a life line. Knowing he wasn't alone in this made it, not much, but a little easier. They got back to the dorm and Mickey sat up against the headboard and Ian laid his head on Mickey's chest right above his heart, so he could hear the solid rhythm of his heart beat. He tried to time his own breaths to match rhe rising and falling of Mickey's chest.

The room had grown dark and Ian realized he must have passed out from exhaustion as he slowly opened his eyes. He could feel the gentle rubbing of a hand up and down his back causing a little of the tension in his body to be released. He inhaled deeply to feel a tightness in his chest, but not enough where he couldn't get enough air in like before. He shifted a little and broke Mickey out of a daze, who tightened the arm around him.

"Hey, how ya doing" Mickey asked softly.

"Um, better. Than I was before anyway." Ian answered hesitantly. Worried he would say one thing but really mean another.

"Good. Good. That's good. Do you want me to call anyone. Like the doctor see if something was wrong with the meds, to make you freak out like this?"

"No, Mick. I'll just do it tomorrow." He said with his head still rested on Mickey's chest. He couldn't think of how many hours he had been passed out, and how long Mickey had sat there wide awake while making sure Ian was okay. "You should go study. Isn't your big test tomorrow?" He said shifting up so he could look the older man in the eye.

"Yeah, but it's fine I studied enough."

"No Mickey. I don't wanna keep you here."

"Are you kidding? I'm not leaving you now. After that." Mickey said with a firm look, but changed once a thought came into his mind. "Unless you want to be alone, which I understand if you did."

"No, I want you to stay. I just don't want to you fail cus of me."

**  
** "You're more important to me than a goddamn test." Mickey said surely like he had never told anything more truthful before in his life. Ian let out a small smile before burying his face into his boyfriend neck. He felt Mickey shift and removed himself so Mickey could lay on his back, and pull Ian into his side, curling around him. Mickey's hand gently stroked through his hair, and with every stroke it felt like more nerves were disappearing from his body and his mind. He kissed Mickey's shoulder lightly before he fell asleep wrapped in his safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should be up by next Sunday April 19th, so look out for it then!
> 
> Maybe even before if your lucky(;
> 
> You can always come [hang](http://fuckyouandyourstarwars.tumblr.com/)


	7. My phone will be right by my pillow

The first nightmare Mickey remembered having, he was five year old and was being shaken awake by Mandy. He couldn't remember the full dream, but he knew that it had involved Terry. He woke with a jump and was covered in sweat. Mandy sat in his bed with him until his mother walked in a minute later with a wet paper towel, and held it to his forehead while wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He realized in that moment that this must have happened before because of how calm both of the two girls were and how they didn't pry to know what Mickey dreamt of. Although in that house you just knew. His mother rubbed up and down his arm, sitting with him, Mandy sitting on the edge of the bed, while he evened out his breathing. She kept murmuring comforting words, and willing him to keep quiet and not wake up the cause of these nightmares. Forty five minutes passed before Mickey had calmed down enough to sleep again but with Mandy, who was already asleep, staying in the room with him for the rest of the night.

He had a couple more after that and there was always two options for Mickey and his nightmares. The first one was that he would wake himself up when his nightmare had almost finished, covered in sweat and breathing hard. Mickey would be able to calm himself, enough not to burst into tears and go to his mother, making sure to only wake her up and not Terry. After that she would come lay with him in his own bed until he fell back asleep. The second option was that someone would wake him up in the middle of the dream because he was thrashing around or screaming too loud. Times like these he would automatically start crying unable to help himself, and whoever woke him, whether it be Mandy or his mom, would hold him until he could get to the point of exhaustion from crying and being unable to breath properly where he would pass out.

When mother died they had gotten progressively worse. Every night he was either jolting awake himself, or being shaken awake by Mandy telling him to quiet down. He never had cried so many silent tears in his life. Even when he woke up himself, he couldn’t go wake up his mother so he went into Mandy's room and crawled into bed with her. He needed the comfort of knowing someone was there to even begin to try to go to sleep.

Sometimes he hated himself when he looked at Mandy long enough to see how tired he was making her. But everytime he complained to her, she just shot the observation back at him.

Eventually he had stopped having them every night and it refused to only one happening every couple weeks. There was no triggers for them, sometimes he could have a perfectly normal day and that night he would wake up in a pool of sweat. He could have also been in the crossfire of Terry's drunken anger and be perfectly fine throughout the night.

When he went off to college he was expecting that even though he was leaving his comfort behind he would be okay leaving the source of his nightmares behind as well. But one week in he had woken himself up and couldn't fall back asleep. He went to class exhausted, cranky, and snapped at one who came within a few feet of him. This happened a few more times before he couldn’t take the lack of sleep that these nightmares were causing him and called Mandy in the middle of a mental break down.

They seemed to die away the longer Mickey stayed at college. Occasionally he would have a really bad one, where he could not return to sleep and had to wake up Mandy just to comfort him, but a majority of the little amount that he had now he could handle them himself. When he had first started dating Ian he wasn’t having any anymore. He was glad of this fact because he didn’t want to hold out on their relationship because of the fact that he didn’t want Ian to become the exhausted mess he was when he had one. But his life had never been easy on him, and one perfectly normal night Ian had almost shoved him off the small dorm bed to get Mickey to wake up. He tried to ask the man what was wrong, but Mickey could barely hear himself think, much less listen to Ian’s questions. He gripped the sheets of the bed trying to ground himself. He’d been shoved awake so intensly his eyes started watering and he couldn’t stop as the tears started trailing down his face. Ian heard his ragged breathing and brought a hand up to rub at Mickey’s bicep. He could tell the redhead didn't want to overstep any boundaries or make Mickey uncomfortable, but Mickey choked on a breath and hunched over while scooting closer to Ian, collapsing into his chest. Ian wrapped his arms around him and rubbed at his back whispering into his hairline for a couple minutes until he could feel Mickey’s tears stop and his breathing calm down a little. They leaned so heavily into each other that if one were to move they would both go tumbling over. The last thing Mickey remembers that night was Ian shifting to lay on his back with Mickey’s head resting on his chest and over his heart, the thumping lulling him to sleep.

After that Ian began to understand a lot more about Mickey and his emotions. Although he never fully explained what happened in his nightmare, Ian got the message that if it was important he would tell him. Mickey would call him in the middle of the night sometimes just to hear Ian’s voice and that always managed to calm him down. They would stay on the line, falling asleep listening to each other’s breathing. Mickey never was the sappy romantic type of person but now Mickey felt like he could really trust Ian with everything that was and is him. He was a fixed figure in his life, like Mandy had always been. He had become part of routine for Mickey’s own comfort and ability to feel safe enough to let himself go.

When he woke himself up from a nightmare on a particular night he was very stressed out he didn’t hesitate to call Ian before he could even regain his own breathing. Once Ian answered the phone and heard Mickey he knew what was going on.

“Mick, Mickey it’s okay. Just breathe. Okay? I’m coming over there. Just stay on the line alright. I’ll be there in five.” Ian was saying into the receiver but was having a conversation with himself. Ian talking and not forcing Mickey to form words made things better for him. He focused on Ian’s voice and the words he was forming while he forced his own body to sit against the headboard. He was still struggling with his breaths when Ian came in the door hanging up when he could finally see Mickey.

“Hey, babe, you’re good. You’re okay. I’m here.” Ian said softly petting his head a couple times, leaning over the man before pushing his fingers down and through the sweaty black hair, climbing in next to him. Ian pushed back against the headboard and forced Mickey to shuffle in between his legs so his back was flush against Ian’s chest. He tangled their hands together on Mickey’s stomach before leaning around and kissing Mickey’s sweaty forehead. He rested his cool one, from the air outside, against Mickey’s.

“Shut the fuck up, faggots” came a muffled voice from the other side of the room. Both the men had forgotten about the roommate in favor or each other, not even realizing they weren’t alone.

“You don’t like it go somewhere else asshole.” Ian said sharply before the man huffed roughly shoving his covers out of the way and storming out of the room, slamming the door. Ian returned his head so he could kiss Mickey’s temple once more. “Don’t let him bother you. I got you.” He said when he felt Mickey’s grip in his hand tighten. He said it quietly only for the sake of Mickey, knowing he didn’t need rough right now. After a while of just their breathing filling up the silence in the room Ian shifted to get out from behind Mickey, but Mickey reacted quickly grabbing onto his t-shirt tightly.

“Don’t leave,” he practically begged, and any other time Mickey would have thought himself pathetic, but if Ian had left now he wasn’t going to make it through the night.

 **  
** “Hey, never, okay. I’m always here for you.” He said still getting up before settling back down laying down on his side so Mickey could curl up into him. “I’ll always have you Mick, even when I’m not physically with you,” he continued as he wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his back. “I’m here for you Mick.” And they both drifted to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update, but I was away all weekend at a concert seeing my idols! AH! But that's no excuse I'm sorry. I hope y'all like it!
> 
> Next chapter should be up by next weekend (sorry the week skip, but I don't want to let you guys down if I don't have it up) So yeah I'm shooting for May 3rd, but hopefully I'll have it up earlier! Comments and kudos always make my day better and I love every single one of you who take the time to write something to me! <3


	8. Call me when you get there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -the POV switches halfway through so be prepared-
> 
> ~idk how this happened or where this went, but I kinda like it~

****

Ian woke up with a cramped neck and his face pushed into the crook his boyfriend's shoulder. He shifted a little to feel Mickey's arm draped down his side, lightly brushing his ribs with his fingertips. The two of them had been watching a movie they picked up at a local movie store on Mickey's laptop, but he must have fallen asleep halfway through, pressed up against Mickey's chest. Because now the credits were rolling on the screen so he tilted his head up to see Mickey staring off at him with a concerned look on his face.

"What are you looking at?" Ian questioned fully knowing the answer but wanting to hear Mickey's explanation at being caught.

"What?" Mickey said, startled, as he seemed to be coming out of a daze. "Um, well, I was watching the movie you insisted on us getting until you decided to fall asleep and fucking snore in my face."

"Bitch I do not snore" Ian stated as Mickey snorted a laugh.

"Please, you can't hear yourself at night."

"Mmm, valid point. But don't act like you don't love it."

"Jesus, shut the fuck up. Some people need to sleep." A third voice joined in on their conversation from the other side of the room.

"It's not even that late. Aren't you a college kid? Supposed to be out partying and all that shit." Mickey said straining his neck to look over Ian’s head at Ryan in his own bed across the room. Ian closed his eyes while Mickey dealt with him and attempted to bury his face deeper into the warmth of Mickey’s neck.

"It's three in the morning." Ryan supplied, voice muffled by his pillow. Mickey just groaned and reached over Ian’s lap to grab the laptop and shut it.

“Babe,” Mickey whispered shoving at Ian’s shoulder pulling him out of his almost sleep causing him to jolt upwards. “Put the laptop on the floor,” he said softly, shoving the laptop up towards Ian’s crotch. He lazily took the computer and basically threw himself over the bed to try and gingerly put it on the floor. Coming back up he twisted his body once again and got settled in between Mickey’s legs. He went to put his head back in the crook of Mickey’s neck, but the older man stopped him almost headbutting him on the side of his temple. He nuzzled him a little until his nose was pressed against the ginger’s cheek.

“You’re gonna have to drive for a good six hours tomorrow. You sure you wanna sleep like this?” Mickey whispered into his ear and all the sudden Ian remembered that he was leaving for a week to go see his brother at his college in New York. Lip had gotten fed up with the distance between the family, but given their situation Fionia and rest of the Gallaghers had no way of traveling up to see him. He had only been able to come back for winter break, but with spring break starting tomorrow, Lip insisted Ian drive up to see him. Although Ian loved it at college he admitted to missing the close net family they used to have so he was quick to jump at the offer. The only down side was he couldn’t bring Mickey with him, given the limited space in Lip’s dorm room.

“Turn around.” Ian commanded, moving out of Mickey’s legs and stepping onto the cold tile floor. Despite the command Mickey too followed Ian’s lead to get out of bed as they both proceeded to strip down to their boxers before getting back into the bed, Ian shuffling until his chest was pressed flush against Mickey’s back. He laid his arm out on the pillow before Mickey laid down, so that when he did his head was placed on Ian’s bicep. He could feel the black hairs brush against his arm as he moved his head around getting comfortable. Ian brought his arm around Mickey’s waist to hold him steady against him and kissed right below the man’s hair line, now inches from his face, and rested his own face there.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" Mickey asked the lowest Ian had ever heard him talk. Over the past month Ian had been up and down with his manic and depression. Not suffering to extremes, but it was enough to notice. Mickey had finally taken Ian to his local doctor over the previous weekend to check his pills and hopefully get things straightened out. So far they were working perfectly, but that didn't mean Mickey wasn't still worried.

"Mick. I can handle myself."

" 'm not saying you can't. I just wanna know what you think about yourself."

"Well, I don't want to give anyone anything to be concerned with. So I'm gonna go." Ian said firmly tightening his grip.

"Okay, you better check in with me tho."

“Of course. Night Mick,” Ian whispered with his hot breath against the back of Mickey’s neck causing a slight shiver to run through the smaller man’s body. Ian chuckled lightly before Mickey raised his own hand to intertwine his hand with Ian’s.

“Night Ian.” And they both slipped into a content sleep.

\--

“Stop freaking out, I’m sure Lip will have stuff if you forget anything.” Mickey says from his spot on Ryan’s bed as he passed the joint they had been smoking to the brunette while Ian paced around the room trying to remember if he had forgot to pack anything.

“I’m not freaking out. I, just.” He stopped mid sentence and exhaled. Mickey got up off the bed as Ian flopped down on his own. “What if I forget my pills? Or something happens while I’m there and too far away from the doctor. I don’t think I’ve gone this far away from home before.”

“You came here didn’t ya?” Mickey said in a ‘as a matter of fact’ tone as he sat right next to Ian where he had flopped on his back, knees down hanging over the side. Mickey banges their knees together when he sat down  and caused the mattress to bend down a little.

“Yeah, well, I meant here. I'm home here."

“I’m so touched.” Ryan says from where he has now sprawled out on his bed. Mickey laughs from above him and he pushed himself up to sit straight up giving Mickey that look; that he was being serious about this. He had to create this look for Mickey because of how many times Ian would try to talk about something serious and Mickey would take it the wrong way and make it worse without ever meaning to. Once Mickey saw the look he coughed before he stopped laughing and grabbed Ian’s shoulders and looked straight into his eyes.

“It’s only for a week. You will be fine. It’ll feel like home with Lip, okay?” He asks and Ian reluctantly nods before pausing for a few seconds.

"But what if it's not? I haven't even really spoken to him in over a year. I've just- I've made myself here and I feel like now he's not a part of it.."

“Hey, it's okay. Ian, you guys were always close before, it'll feel like you're fifteen again. And don’t forget you can always call me alright? If you feel like somethings going wrong, just call me. I’ll be here. Okay?” Ian nods, smiling at the comfort Mickey always brings him whenever he’s in distress. “Alright. Now get going. You don’t wanna keep the dick waiting.” Mickey laughs and they both get up of the bed and Ian grabs his bag about to walk out the door before turning back and grabbing Mickey’s face with both his hands.

“Thank you,” he whispers centimeters from Mickey’s mouth before closing the gap. Their lips rested there in comfort before Ian licked the split in Mickey’s lips causing him to open up from Ian to go in deeper, Mickey leaning back a little. He grasped at Ian’s hips for support, before pushing his own tongue and mouth forward to balance the kiss once again.

They must have been kissing for minutes, but between the two it had felt like seconds. For them no amount of time would ever be enough.

“Don’t forget to call me when you get there,” Mickey quietly says as they separate, but Ian hears him. He pecks him on the lips once more before flashing his grin that never failed to make Mickey smile right back and saying a quick bye to Ryan before walking out the door.

\--

Lip had been pacing around his room for the past twenty minutes, ringing his hands, trying not to have his mind go to all the worst places. He had tried to talk out his anxiety with his roommate, but he got so frustrated that he had walked out ten minutes into Lip’s freak out. One hour and twenty minutes ago Ian had called him from a gas station telling him he was less than an hour away. Now every minute over the hour Lip had added another thing on his ‘list of things Ian could have fucked up.’ Twenty more minutes went by and Lip couldn’t handle anxiety anymore, so he decided to light up a joint laying on his bed, hoping that Ian would show up sometime that day.

Not five seconds after Lip had taken the first puff there was a knock on the door.

“Way to start without me, dick” was the first thing out of Ian’s mouth as he walks into the room, dropping his bag on Lip’s bed, and walking over to take the joint from him. He took a puff and instantaneously the two boys burst out laughing and hugged. Lip hadn’t seen his younger brother in close to year because of their conflicting schedules. Lip had to come back up from their childhood home before New Year’s, and that day was the only one that Ian could come down for.

They separated from each other and moved to lay on the bed, passing the joint back and forth between the two of them like they had when they were fifteen. Ian explained as to how he got so lost he had to stop somewhere and get directions to the campus, which is why he was late, and Lip complained about all the stuck up people that were here with him, and how they have gotten worse, since they are almost done with their senior year. After a while Ian jumped up and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Shit, I forgot to call Mickey when I got here,” he said simply before he stood up and walked out of the room dialing a number into the phone. Lip figured it was just a check in call so he flopped back down on the bed, but fifteen minutes later Ian had yet to return. He put the joint out and opened the door to see Ian crouched down on the floor practically blushing into the phone. Ian hadn’t even noticed that he came out of the room, so Lip kicked his knee waking Ian of his trance, but quickly returning to his conversation on the phone. He groaned in frustration before kicking Ian again, harder, hoping to get the boy’s attention.  In return the redhead rolled his eyes, but started saying his goodbye over the phone. Once he hung up the phone Lip began to talk.

“Dude what the hell?”

“What? I told Mickey I’d call him when I got here.”

“Yeah I was expecting a three minute ‘yeah I’m here’ call, but instead you were out here for like twenty minutes!”

“Fuck, really? I didn’t think I was that long.”

“Well. You were.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry man. It won’t happen again.” Ian finished off patting his brother’s shoulder and walking back into the room.

But it did happen again.

Every day in fact.

Ian had always been about secrecy. Even when Lip and Ian would have their talks in the van while smoking, Lip could always tell Ian wasn't telling the full story. He could never fully understand why Ian would always hold back when, if anyone, Lip would understand.

But that was just who Ian was.

Which is why after the first time Lip knew, Ian's trips to bathroom, for a smoke, or just time alone, were always to call Mickey. And he would spend hours on the phone if Lip never caught him and forced him to come back to the dorm.

What he didn't get the most is why he would leave the room every time he wanted to talk to Mickey.

Lip could somewhat understand Ian wanting to talk to his boyfriend everyday. It's was hard to go from seeing each other everyday to not at all for a week. Even when he approached him about it Ian shot it down.

"Why do you always leave the room to talk to your boyfriend?" He asked during one of the times they were sitting watching a movie they had a million times before.

"What?" Ian asked like was surprised Lip had caught on.

"I mean, Mickey's not a secret. You brought him home on New Years. And from what Fiona said you two were getting pretty comfortable there. So why do you never talk to him with me around? Unless you got a secret man on the side?"

"NO! God, I'm not cheating on Mickey. Fuck. I just. I don't know. Don't want to bother you with our conversations."

"You know I've never actually met the guy you're borderline obsessed with."

"Yeah, I guess you haven't." Ian said slowly almost as if regrettable. But with Ian, that tone could mean anything.

"You ever gonna tell me anything about him? Or is he just gonna be another dirty little secret?" Lip asks getting out some frustrations of all the questions he couldn't ask Fiona when she had told him that Ian had been dating someone from his college. He couldn't ask why Ian never told them about Mickey before he brought him home. He couldn't ask why Ian mentally began drifting away from all the Gallagher siblings, but still caring all the same. He couldn't ask what was going through Ian's head because he was sure Ian didn't even know the answer to that half the time.

"Mickey's anything but that." Ian says with a solid voice staring straight into his brothers eyes.

"Then why, Ian?" He didn't have to elaborate because this had always been the issue. Never opening up. But of course Ian ignored the question getting off the bed and heading out the door.

He didn't come back for an hour and a half.

When Ian fell asleep that night, Lip took the liberty to try and find out everything he wasn't telling him. The first thing he noticed was that Ian's background was a picture of him kissing the man's, who he assumed was Mickey, cheek. Lip guesses his pass code on the first try, Ian's birthday, and first looked at his messages.

He has a few from Lip and Fiona, and a bit more from Debbie. But a majority of his messages were to names Lip didn't recognize, Ryan (who Ian had told him about), and the most being Mickey. When he looked at messages from Fiona and him the consisted of the same things. 'How are you' 'you feeling okay' 'meds working.' Besides the details to this trip, there wasn't much more other than the same questions between the two of them. He had never noticed, until he looked at the conversations between Ian and some of his friends. They were all lively with a millions 'lols' being thrown around.  

 **  
** Next he moved to his pictures. The last one he had taken was a picture of Mickey holding up two movies with a questioning look on his face. Lip thought it was a bit odd, but he moved on and the next fifty he saw were selfies Ian had taken with Mickey. Half of which he had shied away from the camera, but some of them reminded himself of him in past relationships. Some Mickey had his head on Ian's shoulder, some had Mickey kissing Ian nearly everywhere, some were selfies of Ian with Mickey hugging him from behind, and some were of Mickey and Ian kissing with the camera angle titled a little sideways. He looked through more of Ian with his friends at bars, clubs, all with Ian looking happier than he ever has before. And then he found lots of Mickey just sleeping. He decided to put Ian's phone away and climb back into bed, but realizing how much Ian was benefiting from college where as Lip just wanted it to be over kept him up. Ian had made a new home at college with his friends and his boyfriend that didn't involve any of the Gallaghers. Ian had made it out, successfully, while Lip would always be stuck as south side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I've been sooo busy with school and sports ugh. But as the summer starts I should have more time, so look for more updates
> 
> And thank you soso much for all the comments and kudos! Even on my other stories, they honestly keep me going, so thank you, every little thing means so much.


	9. Don't worry, I'll take care of it for you

“You guys need anything else?” The perky brunette asked for the fifteenth time since the two of them had walked through the door.

“Could I get another coffee?” Ian asked politely and Mickey could have sworn he was batting his eyelashes at the bitch. She enthusiastically nodded her head so much it looked like her neck was about to snap, and bounced off on her feet to get her new infatuation a cup of coffee. Mickey followed her with his eyes as she left the table, who kept an eye back on Ian the whole time.

"Mickey," Ian said sternly causing Mickey to snap his neck back, raising his eyebrows at the man across from him in the booth. "I asked you a question." He said in the same tone.

"Sorry, what was that again?" Mickey asked, but Ian just sighed before abandoning his previous question to drain the little bit of coffee he had left and look back down at his textbook. "C'mon man. Ask it." Mickey pleaded feeling Ian's frustration. Ian looked up to see Mickey's pleading eyes and his anger immediately dropped from his face, replaced by a small smile, making Mickey smile a little at the same time.

"Do you recognize that girl?" Ian asked pointing to their waitress who was buzzing from behind the counter.

"Um, maybe I don't know. Don't really think I've seen her anywhere besides here."

"Well, I think she's in my English class. I think she was the one who kept trying to get me to go on study dates with her in the beginning of the year."

"She did what!?" Mickey exclaimed causing a few heads to turn around the coffee shop.

"I said no! Christ, Mick” Ian replied with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. A lot of college kids came to study and have coffee dates at the little coffeehouse, including the two of them and their friends. Ian didn’t want to be one of the few people who were actually asked to leave the cafe.

"That bitch comes near you I'll stab her with a fork," Mickey replied casually a couple minutes later.

"Don't commit murder over me."

"You're worth it," Mickey said just as casually as if he were talking about last night’s homework. Ian felt his face go flush and he gaped up at the man across from him, but Mickey’s head was tucked down writing something on a new scratch of paper. So he struggled to hold back a grin and went to reading his textbook once again.

\--------------------------------------

"That girl from the coffee shop wants to follow me on Instagram," Ian said a few days later as they laid on Ian's dorm room bed. Mickey had had an exhausting week and was attempting to be lulled into sleep with Ian ran his fingers through his hair, but the silence was rudely interrupted. Mickey opened his eyes but not moving his head from Ian's lap, and stared at the man's face, who leaned against the headboard.

"What?" Mickey asked annoyed

"That brunette, from the coffee shop. She wants to follow me on Instagram. Sarah. but she put it without an a at the beginning." He said holding the phone over Mickey's face to show him. He cringed from the sudden brightness of the phone screen, but squinted a little to look at the tiny circle of a profile picture.

"She found you? That's kinda stalkerish," He said closing his eyes once again.

"Should I let her?"

"I don't see why not." Mickey replied and nudged his head against Ian's hand that laid limp on his head. The redhead began again, and Mickey soon fell into sleep.

\---------------------------------------

Mickey was woken up in the middle of the night by a quick buzzing noise every couple of seconds. He lifted his head from Ian's stomach and found his phone almost directly next to his ear. The brightness of the phone shocked him a bit, but once he got used to the light he saw all the notifications on his phone.

He scrolled through what looked like hundreds of "srah_h3 liked your photo" and "srah_h3 commented on your photo" he unlocked the phone before laying back down to investigate. What he came up with was a little orange notification on the bottom with a heart 93 and a text bubble 57.

Mickey had a Twitter for school, but hardly used it besides to get in contact with people and tweet at Ian or Ryan, and he had snapchat of which he snap chatted a total of ten people, but he had never gotten an Instagram. So he was clueless when he looked through.

He figured the little man in the bottom right was a profile so he clicked on that and saw he was right. Up at the top was a picture that Ian had taken of them when they first started dating. Ian was smiling in the front and Mickey sat behind him flipping off the camera. Mickey remembered it had been their "two monthaversary" and they spent the day in New York City. He looked at the simple ‘Ian Gallagher’ under the picture as he began to scroll down the clutter of pictures.

The page was littered with pictures of sunsets, the city, selfies, as well as ones with Mickey in them. He clicked on some of the better looking pictures to see Ian was close to getting a hundred hearts on each one. Mickey guess that was what a like was, and continued to look through the pictures. He was about to switch the tab, when he found one picture that he hadn't known was even taken. The picture was professionally taken from the same guy who photoed Ian’s older sister’s wedding that Ian had brought him too, said by the logo in the bottom left corner. But the picture wasn't of the bride or groom. It was of Ian and Mickey during a slow dance. Everyone around them looked distant as they stood chest to chest in their tuxes that Ian had forced them to go out and rent. Ian’s arms wrapped around Mickey’s shoulders, while his own were tight around the redhead’s waist. They foreheads were pressed together and they both wore subtle smiles while their eyes were closed. Mickey couldn’t remember what they were smiling at but he remembered that night as being the best he had had in longer time than he would have liked to admit.

Mickey was smiling down at the phone in memory, when he realized the photo had gotten 189 likes on it, and had over 30 comments. Ian’s main caption had been “Cause the world stops when you put your arms around me” and Mickey’s grin grew from the cheesiness of comment, although he knew it was just as true for him. He clicked a button to expand the comments, and they all familiarized on the line of ‘you two are adorable’ or ‘relationship goals’. He even saw his own sister had commented ‘wish I had a man like that’ with a winky face. At the end of the comments he saw srah_h3 had commented ‘awe’ with a heart eyes emoji, and Mickey was reminded of his previous mission.

He switched the tab to go the the activity and scrolled through to see all the likes and comments on Ian’s pictures. Ian had exactly 93 photos and she had liked every single one. He started clicking through the comments she made like ‘nice shot!’ on sunset pictures and ‘looks amazing’ on anything that had to do with food. He couldn’t help but see that this girl hadn’t commented on a whole lot of pictures with Mickey in them. One or two pictures she had said ‘looking sharp’ but made no comments of Mickey in any of them. Eventually Mickey decided to give it a rest and locked the phone and falling asleep to deal with it the next day.

\--------------------------------------------------------

Mickey’s study date with Ian was supposed to start at 3:30, but it was 3:40 at the moment, Mickey’s class had just gotten out, and he was all the way across campus. He send Ian a quick text saying he'd be there in five, but in reality unless he sprinted he wouldn’t even make it there in ten minutes. So he showed up at the coffee shop a little before four to see the back of Ian’s head sitting at a table.

But he wasn’t alone.

The perky barista, Sarah, was sitting across from him laughing as if she had never laughed before in her life. Mickey stalked over and cleared his throat from behind Ian and he glanced up quickly before he practically leaped out of his seat pulling Mickey in for a kiss. He was a bit surprised and made a short ‘mmph’ sound before kissing back, and then Ian pulled away.

“So glad you’re here,” Ian said under his breath, like he didn’t want the girl, who was now staring at them, to hear.

“Course, Gallagher. Sorry I was a bit late. The class was all the way across campus and it got out lat-”

“It’s fine. Really Mickey.” Ian cut him off staring into his eyes intently. Mickey could sense he was trying to tell him something, but he couldn’t figure it out quick enough before Ian yanked his glance away. “Sarah, would you mind getting a coffee for Mickey?” He asked in a polite, but too polite tone.

“Sure,” she said, her voice sounding a little hurt as she got out of the seat. She gave Mickey a one up glance before turning to head behind the counter. Ian remained standing watching the girl leave as Mickey took the previously occupied seat. Once Ian deemed she was a safe enough distance away, he sat down, place his arms on the table, leaning forwards, before the words started tumbling out of his mouth

“Mick, she fucking knows everything. I have no idea how, but she does. I’ve-I’ve never had a conversation with her before today but she knows everything about my life, like everything, where I-I lived, my siblings, she even knows about fucking Frank, and she’s not even from South Side I don’t know how-”

“Woah, Ian, it’s okay calm down,” Mickey said interrupting Ian’s jumble of mushed together shaky words. He put one of his hands over Ian’s, and he automatically turned his hand to grasp Mickey’s. “What is she like stalking you?”

“Honestly, I don’t know but I don’t like the fact that she knows all this shit. This was supposed to be my chance to get away, strangers aren’t supposed to know my life story.”

“Hey, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it for you.” Mickey said squeezing Ian’s hand before getting up, but Ian grabbed his wrist.

“You don’t have to Mick,” Ian started to say sadly, but Mickey brushed him off.

“I want to.” And with that Ian let go and smiled up at his boyfriend before Mickey strode over to the counter where Sarah was leaning.

“Can I help you?” She asked in a fake, high-strung voice as Mickey approached the counter.

“Yeah, I need you to leave my boyfriend the fuck alone.” He said sternly

“Excuse me?” She asked, genuinely shocked as if she didn’t expect this confrontation.

“Ian Gallagher. You need to stop stalking him on his fucking social medias, and quit talking to him.”

“I was only trying to be frien-”

“Friendly doesn’t involve going up to someone and telling them their own fucking life story.”

“I-”

 **  
** “Don’t wanna hear it.” Mickey said, swiping his hand through the air. “I don’t know how you got the information you did and I don’t know why, but the one thing I do know is you come near him again, and make him feel the way he’s feeling right now, I will make you wish you never even knew of the kid.” He finished off spinning on his feet and turning away before she could say anything back. He walked to the table, palming the back of Ian’s head and rubbing his hand over his hair before sitting back down. “So you wanna get this study date going?” And the smile Ian gave him made him willing to tear down the world for this boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am aware that Instagram notification don't make sound, but I altered it for purposes of the story.
> 
> I am so so sorry I haven't updated in so long, but the summer is coming up and I will be working on it even more!
> 
> In the mean time, comment, kudo, and let me know what you think!!(:  
> you can also come [hang on tumblr](http://fuckyouandyourstarwars.tumblr.com)


	10. Your smile is beautiful

“...and everything was fine until the cops showed up, and I swear, the amount of high schoolers that ran out of that house was enough to make an army!” Nate exclaimed before taking a final sip of his beer and waving the waitress over.

“We maybe if you hadn’t had all those unerage kids there, it wouldn’t have been such a big issue.” Julie said from next to Mickey. They sat in a corner booth, the six of them. Ian, Nate, Mickey, Tyler, Julie, and Audrey.

“They’re just high schoolers trying to escape from the places they're forced to call home. Never did anyone any harm.” Tyler said raising his eyebrows at Julie, who just glared at him.

“I know quite a few incidents that have.” Audrey brought up from next to Julie on the other end of the booth.

“Well I’m here just fine and dandy, and I did it all,” He teasingly said back.

“You guys want some food?” Ian asked, interrupting the waitress and Nate’s subtle flirting, going on in front of Ian. Not as subtle as they hoped, it was just the two of them blushing and weirdly winking at each other.

“Yeah, a pizza!” Julie suggested

“fuck YES,” Tyler screamed causing a few people to turn their heads.

“Sure thing,” the waitress said before winking and turning away as they got back into conversation. The six of them were all completely different, but all managed to get along great. And they would have never met if they weren’t all brought together by the same person. Ian. When he had been struggling freshmen year, he asked a lot of his classmate to help him and would arrange studying sessions, but often over booked himself and one time he had set up a date with all of them at once. But once they all got there they shrugged, sat down, and never stopped talking. Nate was frat boy, but wasn’t as stuck up as a lot of people that were part of a fraternity. He actually cared about his education more than partying. Julie was a know-it all, but she had a lot of thought behind her actions and made everyone think a way they wouldn’t have before. Audrey was the most passionate person you were ever to meet, and was a very good public speaker, and Tyler fought his way through a poor family to be there, and he was humbly honest about everything. They all continued to bicker and talk as the pizza came.

“Mickey, you coming to the party tonight?” Nate asked around his second slice of pizza.

“Nah, man. I got a huge ass paper due tomorrow,” Mickey replied taking a sip of his beer.

“Live in the moment dude. Come for a little bit. Even Julie’s coming.” Tyler drunkenly said from next to him. No doubt he had more to drink than the rest of them already, and wasn’t planning on stopping.

“No, I’m not.” She replied

“Yes you are,” Audrey said next to her as they started to go into debate.

“I can’t anyways. I was gonna go back to Ian’s and...” He was going to explain more but was cut off by groans and fake gagging around him.

“Dude, why do you have to go and say that?” Nate asked fake throwing up on the table.

“What?” Mickey asked as innocently as he could pull off.

“We all know you're going to be so far from studying that the moon will look close.” Audrey said rolling her eyes.

“Please, it’s not like you guys don’t come in here boasting about your lays every single day.” Ian said

“Yeah, but we don’t come in here parading that we can get sex on the daily.” Tyler shot back

“You two disgust me,” Julie said faking gagging once again.

“We try.” Ian said smugly, giving Mickey a look only he would understand before they both broke into grins.

\------------------------------------------

They ended up going to the party for a little over three hours before they stumbled back to Ian’s room for the night. They pushed open the door laughing about god only knows what, before they realized they were alone in the room. The two of them exchanged a look of lust before Ian was unzipping Mickey’s sweatshirt and Mickey was undoing the buttons to Ian’s flannel. Ian had Mickey’s two layers off and he stood bare chested, while Mickey still struggled with the buttons. Ian laughed at Mickey’s frustration, and Mickey breathed out heavily, but a smile fell on his face as he exhaled, focusing on undoing the buttons. Ian brought his hands up to Mickey’s elbows and stroked his arms with his thumbs willing Mickey to take his time, and focus on the task at hand.

Once the shirt fell off of Ian’s shoulders, he dove down capturing Mickey’s lips into his own. Mickey brought both his hands up to Ian’s sides as Ian ran his hand up Mickey’s arm and to the back of his neck holding his head there. He undid his own jeans with a little difficulty, but soon moved onto Mickey’s. Ian stepped forward a little bit at a time, until he had Mickey’s jeans open and Mickey’s knees hit the side of the bed and he fell to sit down on it. They both moved to take their jeans and boxers off before Ian moved to put his legs on either side of Mickey lap, holding onto the back of his neck, never breaking eye contact. Ian heard Mickey take a sharp breath in, bringing a smile to the redheads face as he leaned in to kiss Mickey’s forehead first, and move down from there. He felt Mickey bring his hand to his ass and pull him closer so his cock rubbed up against Mickey’s stomach.

Mickey exhaled as Ian finally reached his lips with his own, and Mickey wrapped both his arms around Ian’s waist before he somehow managed to flip Ian over. He landed with and ‘umph’ before laughing slightly.

“I don’t think you’ve ever done that before.” Ian said looking down at Mickey as he teased the tip of his cock with his tongue. Ian let out a deep but short moan, as Mickey quickly moved to lick up his stomach and to his left nipple. He sucked on it hard and quick before moving to the other one. Ian brought a hand to run through Mickey’s thick dark hair as the raven did the same to his right. Ian ran his other hand down Mickey’s body as his mouth moved to suck into Ian’s collarbone. Ian grabbed his ass forcefully, encouraging him and he sucked on the skin till it felt tender. Mickey brought his head in between Ian’s neck and shoulder, before sucking again and bringing his hand up to go in between the back of Ian’s head and the mattress. Mickey laid himself fully on top of Ian as he slid his fingers through his hair moving his head to the side so Mickey could have more access; making Ian moan uncontrollably and continuing to let his hands roam over Mickey's back and ass.

Mickey had moved onto his third hickey before Ian brought a finger to push into Mickey’s hole making Mickey pick up his head and gasp. Ian chuckled at the reaction and Mickey huffed in response before going back in. “M-Mick,” Ian managed to only get out before Mickey went back to sucking on already tender spots, making him moan out louder. “M-Mickey, come up h-here,” he said in rugged breathing and Mickey stopped what he was doing and raised his head to look into Ian’s eyes. His face was centimeters from his own, their heavy breaths mixing together right in front of the lips. Ian sworn he felt his heart stop beating for a second, but was revived by the thumping of Mickey’s on the opposite side of his chest. Ian couldn’t bring himself to form a thought as he stared into Mickey’s blue orbs.

“What?” Mickey’s whispered, his thumb rubbing over Ian’s ear lobe. Ian took a few seconds to remembered why he had stopped Mickey in the first place.

“I,” he took a second, swallowing, “I need to get the stuff,”

“Do we really need it,” Mickey pleaded moving his thumb to run over Ian’s eyebrow.

“You want me to stick my dick in your ass without lube?” Ian asked raising his eyebrow, and Mickey’s thumb moved up and then down with it.

“You make a good point,” Mickey said, but still made no moves. “We really need a condom though?” Mickey asked so lowly Ian might have missed it if all of his senses hadn’t been on Mickey.

“No, I guess not,” He said back just as affectionate as he was feeling, with a soft smile on his face. Mickey slowly raised himself off Ian, as Ian pushed onto his elbows.

“I got it.” Mickey said, and Ian laid back down staring at the ceiling while he heard Mickey open then shut the nightstand drawer. Ian kept staring for a few seconds and then looked to the side of the bed when he realized Mickey wasn’t back yet. Mickey was just looking at him, and Ian began to blush under the intense stare Mickey was giving him. Their eyes connected and Ian lost his breath again, before Mickey was nudging his legs and kneeling in between them. Ian’s calves rested on top of Mickey thighs as he pushed himself up to be in a sitting position, enough to where he could kiss Mickey. His hands hung onto his shoulders, and Mickey held onto his back, moving forward a bit, and Ian falling in the same direction. Mickey moved to straighten back up, and Ian felt him maneuvering the lube container behind his back, desperately trying to keep him up at the same time. He managed to get it on his fingers, but a little fell off onto Ian’s back, and he pulled forward, closer to Mickey, giving him room.

Mickey pushed up so he was on his knees, with Ian’ legs falling off, and started to move his legs over Ian’s. The two worked together, so Mickey was now the one straddling Ian, and he pushed his own fingers into his ass. Mickey gasped into Ian’s mouth, and Ian took one of his hands to wrap around Mickey’s wrist and began to help Mickey stretch himself.

“Ian,” Mickey pleaded, before Ian moved his own hand down, and pushed one of his own into Mickey. He separated his mouth from Ian’s, and moved so their cheeks pressed together and made another sharp intake of air, before he pushed down on their fingers.

“Need you,” Mickey whispered into Ian’s ear, and he removed his finger and grabbing Mickey’s hand in the process. Mickey leaned back a little to hold the bottle of lube in his hands in front of the two of them, and put some in his hand before grabbing Ian’s cock with it and lathering it up. Ian’s felt like he had just moved a foot in the marathon as Mickey began to relieve his straining cock, but it ended all too soon before he was covered in lube and Mickey’s hand was gone. “Ready?” Mickey asked.

“Yes, babe. Need to be inside you,” Ian begged and Mickey moved up and forward so his cock pushed up against Ian’s stomach and the top of his cock came to Mickey’s hole. They both inhaled, and Ian intertwined one of Mickey’s hands before he pushed down further, until Ian was fully seated inside of Mickey. They both groaned out, and Ian was already shaking. Mickey soon felt it in their interlocked hands, and pushed Ian by the shoulder until he laid fully onto his back with Mickey following.

“I’ll make you feel good, baby, trust me.” Mickey growled in front of him before kissing his nose, and Ian had no will to respond. He held tight to Mickey’s hand as he began to move up and down dragging Ian’s dick along the tightness of his hole. Mickey used his spare hand to grip onto Ian’s thigh and he moved until Ian was almost completely removed before he slammed back down, making Ian cry in pleasure, “Fuck, Mickey. So tight, so good.”

He was slowly moving up, and slamming back down to make Ian always feel like he was chasing the speed. Mickey kept adjusting his angles, until Ian had enough of his pace, and as Mickey went up, Ian planted his feet and thrusted into him, hitting right into his prostate.

“Ian, fuck,” Mickey yelped when he hit it, and Ian knew he had his sweet spot continuing a steady pace of thrusts. “Shit, ugn, that feels,” Mickey’s sentences were being chopped up as Ian kept getting the right spot. “Ian,” He gasped out after a particularly hard thrust. “Touch me please,” and Ian reached forward to grab onto Mickey own cock and tug, finally letting him chase his own orgasm.

“I’m close babe,” Ian breathed tugging faster and harder to get Mickey to catch up with him. He stopped thrusting and sat up to be closer and kiss Mickey deeply, wrapping his spare arm around Mickey’s shoulders. He kept tugging with Mickey moaning into his mouth. He began moving with Ian’s pulls, pushing down on Ian dick and then thrusting into his hand.

“Ian, Ian,” He pleaded using his hands to grip tightly onto Ian’s biceps. His eyes were squeezed shut, but Ian needed to see him let go.

“Mickey, look at me.” And with that he opened his eyes, and thrust down hard one more time, before Ian came shooting inside Mickey with a heavy breath out. He tugged Mickey’s cock two more times before he came all over Ian’s fingers and hand. Mickey bent his head to rest his forehead on Ian’s as they caught their breaths and exchanged lazy kisses, with Ian still inside Mickey. Ian wiped his hand on the bed sheets before rubbing up and down Mickey’s thighs.

“C’mon baby,” Ian whispered sweetly, and Mickey lifted himself off of Ian and flopped onto the bed. Ian fell right next to him, spent and exhausted. Mickey went to move and clean himself off before Ian curled into his side.

“Babe, I gotta go clean up,” Mickey tried to pull out of the bed, but Ian wrapped his arms around his waist. He threw his leg over Mickey’s and tried to constrict him like an octopus.

“Please, don’t leave,” Ian whispered, pushing his face into Mickey’s neck and breathing in.

“I’m not going anywhere, it’s okay.” Mickey said wrapping his arms around Ian and kissing the top of his sweat soaked hair.

\-------------------------------------------------------

****  
  


“A movie, lunch, something? We don’t even have to leave the dorm, we could just stay here. Just talk to me baby.” Mickey pleaded, his voice cracking as Ian just huddled more into his blankets. Mickey had woken up early this morning, before Ian to take a shower and head to his class. Before he left, Ian was still sleeping, and Mickey kissed the top of his head. He had the afternoon off before he had to go back, and was expecting to spend that time with Ian going out to lunch or something.

He was crouched down on the side of the bed that Ian faced, and rested his arms along the edge. He brought and hand up gently to pull away some of the blanket.

“Fuck off,” Ian said simply but didn’t try to stop Mickey pulling the blanket down so his head was exposed. He winced a little from the light, and Mickey ran his head over Ian’s head, soothing the headache he had woken up with.

“Hey, he speaks,” Mickey sighs in relief with a soft smile on his face, before he realizes he still hasn’t opened his eyes. “What’s wrong?” Mickey asked softly. Ian mumbled in response and turned his head so it looked like his face was trying to burrow into the pillow. “What was that mumbles?”

“Just go away.” He said in a sigh of defeat.

“nah, you know what I’m gonna stay here till you feel better,” Mickey said before getting up to walk across the bed and pulled up the covers on the opposite side and laid down, pressing against Ian’s back. It felt a bit awkward with Mickey fully clothed and Ian stark naked, but Mickey brought his arm up around Ian’s middle nevertheless.

“Mickey, I don’t deserve this. Just leave while you can.” Ian said a few minutes later, like he had been practicing it in his head. Mickey took a few minutes before he even processed what Ian was telling him.

“That’s fucking insane. I’m not leaving you. Never will.” Mickey tightened the grip he had on Ian and breathed in the smell of his hair.

“You should,” Ian said lowly. “I don’t know why you put up with me.”

“Put up with you?” Mickey asked out of pure shock. “First off, I do not _put up with you_ I chose to be here. To be with you. And secondly why would anyone choose not to be with you? Ian, you’re perfect.” Mickey said to which Ian just huffed out a laugh.

“Obviously not,” He said sadly and it made Mickey want to rip out his own heart and give it to the kid.

“Ian, your disorder does not define you. You are so much more than that. I couldn’t list all the things that are amazing about you.”

“You could try,” Ian said and he turned his body so he laid on his back, looking up at Mickey.

Mickey laughed, “Is that how this is going? Okay your hair is just, so soft.” Mickey paused to run his fingers through his hair. “So thick, and the color.”

“You’re not very good at this.” Ian said blandly

“Hey I’m trying.” Mickey said looking Ian straight in the eye. “Your eyes are just..” He couldn’t think of the right words to describe Ian, because how can you put such perfection into words?  “okay I may not be the best, but I could look into them all day.” He stopped to place a kiss onto Ian’s nose, “and your nose is so kissable, I don’t know how you get the strangers to stay away.”

“You might be a contributing factor to that Mick.”

“Yeah, maybe I just don’t like sharing.” Ian smiled at the comment, and Mickey felt himself smiling before he could even try to stop it.

“And your smile. When you do you look like the fucking sun man. It’s...beautiful, and Mickey leaned down to give Ian a hard but sweet kiss. He brought his hand up to caress Ian’s cheek, but they didn’t go further than just massaging their lips against each others. Mickey pulled away after a few minutes and rested his forehead on Ian’s. “Everyone’s got flaws, but your perfections out rule them.”

“What book did you get that one from?” Ian asked and they both laughed hysterically until they both calmed down and Ian puts his head on Mickey’s chest.

“You’re pretty perfect too Mick,” Ian says with affection in his voice.

“I know” he replies and Ian slaps him on the stomach, but lets his hand stay there as they lay content in the silence with dopey smiles on their faces.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I change the rating for this? idk I’m probably not going to write another scene like that cus I’m really bad at it, but…
> 
> Hope you liked it!


	11. How much sleep did you get last night?

****  
  


For the fifth time since they had met after their classes Ian brushed his hand against Mickey’s that was dangling by his side. Mickey just looked down at the closeness of their hands before returning to Ian’s face.

“You tryin’ to hint at something?” He asked raising his eyebrows up as the wind blew through his jet black hair. The two of them were wearing sweatshirts and jeans seeing as october was ending and it was getting colder around the campus. The brisk wind burned their faces, but not enough to send them running to the closest heater.

Ian chuckled before dipping his head down. “No, nothing.” He said smiling at the shorter man before looking forward once again. Mickey huffed a sigh, and even though Ian wasn’t looking at him, he could see his eye roll as he grabbed the redhead’s hand and intertwined their fingers, giving the two boys hands a little bit of warmth. Ian looked off to the side trying to hide a smile, but when he glanced back at Mickey he was giving him a soft smile that made him feel like he was melting, despite the cold weather. They continued to walk in a comfortable silence with their hands linked until they got to the coffee shop, finding Tyler and Audrey already sitting on one side of the booth.

“Aw, the power couple finally showed up,” Audrey says in a fake affectionate tone as they walk up to the booth, and slide into the other side.

“Ey, I wouldn’t be talking. You two look pretty comfortable over there.” Mickey says sliding into the the corner of the seat while Ian takes the aisle. Mickey and Tyler talk about about their chemistry project due tomorrow morning, while Ian and Audrey chat about other gossip when Ian spots the employee that always happens to be here when they are Sarah. Today it looks like she is a waitress and her eyes light up when she sees Ian sitting there. He turns back to his conversation, but in a matter of seconds she appears at the table.

“Hello! I’m Sarah and I’ll be taking any of your orders today!” She says too excitedly for someone working at 6 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Her eyes have been glued on Ian since she practically ran up to the table, but looks up to see Mickey shooting daggers with his eyes at her. She quickly tilts her head down ward, avoiding his gaze, and asking again, less enthusiastically, if anyone needed anything. They all ordered their coffees before picking up a new conversation, forgetting about all their work due.  

\------------------

The next morning Ian is at class early trying to get some left over work done so that he would have time to just relax in his dorm before his class in the afternoon. He had texted Mickey telling him he was going to get a coffee early, if he wanted to meet him, but he didn’t show and was yet to answer Ian’s text. He payed little attention to those facts finishing up his work as more students began to walk in. The class was a minute away from starting when Ian saw Mickey trudge into the lecture hall and settle into the seat next to him. Ian confusedly looked at Mickey, until he finally looked over at him, only raising his eyebrows before shoving the heels of his palms into his closed eyes.

“Are you okay?” Ian asked in a concerned voice. He had seen Mickey after a night without sleep due to a paper or project, and this was nothing like it. Mickey didn’t even seem like he was awake. He wasn’t making jokes or complaining about the amount of sleep he didn’t get the previous night. But Ian could see the dark bags under his eyes, worse than they had been all year.

Mickey mumbled some kind of acknowledgement towards Ian’s question, not removing his hands or looking at him. Before Ian could ask another question their professor started talking loudly to get their attention, and Ian saw Mickey wince from the volume. Once the professor’s voice returned to normal, Mickey settled back down. Ian watched out of the corner of his eye as he took notes and watched Mickey attempt to do the same. Five minutes later MIckey sighed in a deep defeat, and leaned over to Ian.

“Would you mind taking the notes for me?” He whispered into his ear before pulling away, and when Ian looked into Mickey’s eyes he saw how unable Mickey was to keep up with the class at the moment. Ian just nodded before ducking his head down and taking more notes. In a spare moment when the professor was showing something on the projector, Ian watched Mickey struggle to not fall asleep.

“You could fall asleep you know,” Ian whispered into Mickey’s ear, making him jump a little. “You won’t miss anything.” Mickey just hummed in response before leaning on Ian and peering over his shoulder at the notes he had taken. Ian grabbed his half full coffee from the top of his books and slid it right in front of Mickey’s seat. “If you won’t sleep, drink the coffee.” Mickey obeyed him like he had no other choice and took a sip, before leaning back in his seat and watching the presentation. He drank the rest of the coffee by the end of the class, but looked no more awake than he did when he first walked in. Once the class was over, Ian gathered up his stuff and walked out with Mickey trailing behind him. Once he exited the building he waited a full minute until Mickey caught up to him.

“You wanna tell me what's up?” Ian asked once they had been walking for a couple minutes. He looked over at Mickey who had his arms wrapped around his body, and his shoulders slumped forward.

“Nothin’s up. You wanna tell me where we’re fucking going?” Mickey asked impatiently.

“Hey, you don’t have to follow me. You can fuck off to your prick roommate if you want.” Ian snapped back at him. He glanced back over and Mickey’s head hung down now, watching his own feet move forward.

“ ‘m sorry. I haven’t been sleeping too well.” Mickey softly said a few minutes of walking later.

“Yeah, I can tell.” Ian says staring at Mickey, who has yet to move from his position. “was it that project?” He asks continually looking at him. Mickey just shrugs and glances up to meet Ian’s stare. “More than that?” Ian prys and Mickey tears his gaze away before nodding slightly. Ian can see how Mickey is uncomfortable so he stops asking questions, hoping Mickey will unfold himself. Instead Ian moves a little closer to Mickey so their arms brush against each other as they walk to Ian’s dorm. When they arrive at the dorm they sit on the bed in their same positions, but after a few tense silent minutes, Ian goes to move his arm to wrap around Mickey’s shoulders, and he collapses into Ian once he does this. His arms fall from the death grip on his chest to wrap around Ian’s torso, and his forehead resting on the redhead’s shoulder.

“You can talk to me about this.” Ian says softly rubbing his arm up and down Mickey’s arm.

“I know.” Mickey practically whispers. “I knew you haven’t had the best week either, so I didn’t want to keep you up later than you already were…”

“Mick, you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll always be here for you.” Ian says sincerely and Mickey presses a kiss into his shoulder. Ian waits a few minutes before asking, “How much sleep have you gotten this week?”

“Roughly ten hours.” Mickey mumbles.

“You’re having a lot more than usual.” Ian pointed out continuing to talk in a soft voice.

“Anniversary’s coming up.” And Ian froze when the realization hit him. Ian hadn’t even seen him on that day the previous year. Mickey had stayed curled up in his bed the whole day until he dragged himself out to go to his sisters, then presumably went to their mother’s grave, and he stayed at Mandy’s for the night. He didn’t even tell Ian anything until a couple days after when they had a shared class. Even then it was short details, and quickly switched the topic after that.

Ian looked down at Mickey’s face then and saw the sullen expression set there. He knew this was a sensitive topic with Mickey, but he was so completely out of them loop, that he didn’t know what to say.

“When is it?” Ian asked, cautiously.

“Friday,” was all Mickey said as he continued to stare straight out at their feet. He was silent for a couple more minutes and then spoke up again suddenly. “I’m gonna have to miss class if I want to get to Mandy’s before the sun goes down. Graveyards are creepy at night.” He shuffled his body so that he was sitting up straight against the headboard. Ian’s arm fell off his shoulders and Mickey’s head fell down as well to look at his hands now tangled and mushed together.  “And I know you got classes and shit, but I was uhh,” Mickey continued on, now rushing to get his words out, but stumbling over them anxiously. “I was uh, wondering if you would want- could- if you could, would you, uh, come out with me?” He finished off lamely still staring at his hands, which he was anxiously rubbing together.

And it clicked all the sudden, Mickey wanted Ian to come with him to see his mother’s grave. He couldn’t even formulate a response he was so in shock. Mickey has never opened up about things like this unless he was forced to, and his mother was certainly something they didn’t talk about often.

**  
** “yeah, yeah of course Mick,” he finally replied after Mickey looked up at him when he hadn’t sadi anything in over a minute. He reached over to untangle one of Mickey’s hands from the other, and instead held it in his own. “I’ll be there for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I am SOSO sorry for this unexpected hiatus, I had absolutely no time to sit down and write this, but here it finally is! (don't be too mad at me)
> 
> The next chapter is sort of a continuation of this one, so keep an eye out for it!
> 
> Thank you to all the comments telling me how much you liked the story and how much I should update,(again really sorry) it kept me going and got me to write this chapter. Love you<3

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave kudos and comments, they legit make my day: Every single one<3
> 
> Check me out on [ tumblr ](http://fuckyouandyourstarwars.tumblr.com/) and send me [ prompts ](http://fuckyouandyourstarwars.tumblr.com/ask)


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